A whole new world

President Bush's travel schedule underlines how the world has changed since the collapse of the Soviet empire, although some communist nations remain. On Monday, just as former President Jimmy Carter's itinerary has him returning from Cuba, President Bush planned a visit to Miami's large Cuban-exile community to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cuba's independence from Spain and to stress "the importance of democracy and freedom in Cuba."

Then, the president's schedule has him traveling to Moscow to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The leaders will sign a new treaty to reduce nuclear arms stockpiles from around 6,000 warheads apiece to only 2,000 each. Mr. Bush says the treaty "will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War." Mr. Putin gave TeamBush a number of concessions in the treaty, since the White House preferred loose goals to a formalized document, but the Russian leader politically needs the superpower aura that greets a major arms treaty.